Syrian Torture Images on Display at U.N.: To Look or Look Away

— -- Thirty gruesome photos of torture victims line a heavily trafficked hallway at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as part of the “Caesar” photography exhibition. Caesar, the pseudonym of a defector from the Syrian army, smuggled over 55,000 photos out of Syria and of those, at least 11,000 documented deaths that occurred to victims under detainment, according to The Coalition for a Democratic Syria.

Michele J. Sison, U.S. deputy representative to the United Nations, stated that “There is no vocabulary that captures what the victims portrayed in [the images] felt before their excruciatingly painful deaths. We know that it is far easier to walk rapidly down this corridor, far easier to look away, but I encourage you to stop and take a moment and look at these men, these women, and children. These images are the graphic depiction of how the Assad regime treats its citizens.”

The photos below show reactions from some of the viewers who did not walk past or look away, but stopped to take in this exhibition.